* * *

Your Eminence Metropolitan Stephanos of Tallinn and All Estonia, beloved brother and concelebrant in the Lord,

Most Reverend brother Hierarchs,

Beloved Children in the Lord,

We stand with you on this holy day – the day, when in the afterglow of the Exaltation of the Precious and Lifegiving Cross, we celebrate the memory of the Great-Martyr and Guarantor of the Orthodox Faith, Euphemia of Chalcedon, the All-Praised One.

Through her, the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated the power of the resurrection and the purity of our Orthodox Faith. For it was by her relics, that the truth of the Lord’s humanity and divinity was revealed at the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in the year 451.

On this auspicious day, as your spiritual father and Ecumenical Patriarch, we embrace all of you – the Pious and Noble Estonian People – and we celebrate with you the One Hundredth Anniversary of your manifesting that same Orthodox Faith, as self-governing and free citizens of both Heaven and Earth.

You have had made a remarkable journey – through wastelands of war and of persecution, and you have arrived at the Promised Land of independence and freedom. In this moment, when we have gathered beneath the dome of Heaven to worship in the fresh and clean air of liberty, let us give thanks to Almighty God, Whose love and mercy have brought us to this sacred kairos.

Your Mother Church of Constantinople understands full well that your dispensation of ecclesiastical autonomy has been hard fought, and worthily gained. We look to you as a proud parent does their brilliant child – for you have demonstrated all the graces that would fill any parent with profound joy and satisfaction. You, the Faithful of the Orthodox Church of Estonia, are the living legacy of the generations that have preceded you, and you are creating a future for Orthodoxy in the Baltic region that will last for generations to come.

For as Christians, we are not prisoners of the past, but rather pioneers for the future. As someone once said:

“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”[1]

You are carrying the fire of our Faith forward, to light the way to the future – a future burning with Divine Love and compassion.

Gathered with you in the Sacred Liturgy, we celebrate the essence of your One Hundred Year odyssey, truly a pilgrimage of countless souls.

This Divine Liturgy, and every Divine Liturgy, we receive the Holy Fire of God in the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The prayers that precede Holy Communion call the Mysteries “πῦρ ἄϋλον” – “immaterial fire” that cleanses us from our sins.

Here is the truth of our Sacred Tradition as Orthodox Christians – that we carry this “immaterial fire” forward and teach its mystery to our children and our children’s children. This fire is kindled deep within our hearts and souls, and consumes all dross and all impurity in the brilliant heat of Divine Love.

This is what it means to be of the Tradition of our Faith. The Holy Fire of Divine Love can never be frozen; although there are those in the world who would do so, through their prejudices and hatreds. We see what happens when people choose to worship the ashes. They create even more ashes from the destruction wrought on the innocent, by caving into the demands of worldly power – because they love power.

But we, my beloved Christians, do not bow down out of love of power. We bow down before the power of love! We bow down before the Precious Cross of our Savior!

And so we chanted at the Elevation of the Cross:

Thy Cross do we venerate, O Master, and Thy Holy Resurrection do we glorify!

Therefore, with our heartfelt Paternal and Patriarchal blessings and encouragement – we commend all of you to a future bright for the next hundred years of your glorious Ecclesial Life.

You are beloved children of the Mother Church of Constantinople. Be proud of your heritage and be energetic for your future. Receive the Holy Fire of God in every Liturgy and be like those Disciples who said, after the Eucharist on the Road to Emmaus:

“Were not our hearts on fire inside us, when He spoke to us on the road and revealed to us the Scriptures?” ^[2]

Let your hearts be ablaze with the love of God! And share the brilliant fire of your Faith with all those you encounter.

Dear Children of Estonia:

Now to Him, Whose ability knows no bounds, and Who is able to do far more than all we could ever request or even conceive – to Him be glory in the Church in Christ Jesus, for all generations, and unto ages of ages!  Amen! ^[3]

^_________

[1] Attributed to Gustave Mahler.

[2] Luke 24:32.

[3] Ephesians 3:20.